[fpc-pascal]GPF

[ddt at headrush.co.za]

Hi,
I am currently working on a loderunner clone using FPC and SDL. The game uses
high-resolution graphics and a lot of code. Right now it is over 1000 lines of code (and I haven't even added sound support yet) - while this may seem a bit much for a lode runner clone I have added many features to the orriginal idea:
Levels are plain text files with characters representing what should be on
screen etc.

The overall game was written in a largely object oriented fashion (e.g. only when it made sense to do so) and it is incredibly optimized. 
For example where-ever possible I used global rather than private variables as
this means less memory.

Quite wonderfully the program shows up at only 1.7% ram usage on my system 
Not so lovely is that it uses 100% of CPU - when the player is standing still, which inexplicably drops down to between 20 and 50 percent the moment you start moving.

For starters I am writing it turn based, e.g. the player moves and then the enemies move one by one. Obviously it would be ridiculous to post all the code here, but it is an open-source project so if anybody would like the current code they can e-mail me - I would really appreciate any help.

The core code however is something like this (I left out the grit and these are split over severall units)

Type visuals = object
             what : byte;
             constructor init (location: SDL_Rect,isWhat :Byte);
             procedure draw;
        end;

Type levelobj = object
           block : Array[1..20,1..20] of visuals
           constructor init
           procedure draw;
     end;
type characters = object
           isEnemy : Boolean;
           Status : Byte;
           procedure setStatus (newStatus :Byte);
           constructor init (x,y :byte);
           procedure draw;
    end;
Var player : Characters;
    enemy : Array [1..5] of Characters.

{Both the player and the enemies are handled by the characters object - this makes sense as the exact same physics applies to all of them - the isEnemy 
boolean comes in for the few minor differences}

Characters.Draw has the task of looking at the character's status and then moving
him according to it, e.g. status=0 - character stands still, status=1 character moves left etc.} in doing so it also checks the characters location on the map and applies appropriate physics first. In order to do so some things apply:
The characters can only move one full tile at a time - thus player.X and player.Y will be the block on the level he currently ocupies etc. This means
that it is easy to determine what the level will do to the player (does he fall, run into a brick etc.) The actuall screen positions are only calculated during
drawing.

The main program calls procedure mainloop after initialization which has the task of loading the consecutive levels as they are reached. Mainloop itself calls
gameloop which checks for keys and addjusts the players status accordingly. Then
it calls updateGame; UpdateGame checks the timers on any holes dug and fills them
up after 10 secconds, then it runs the following for each enemy (pseudocode)

If we are higher than the player - find a way down and head towards it.
If we are lower than the player find a way up and head towards it.
If we are on the same height as the player head towards him. 

Once that is done gameloop runs draw for each character in turn (including the
player). This part will obviously need to be adjusted later for more realistic play.

The game works perfectly if there is one enemy (e.g. 
enemy : Array [1..1] of enemies;
{Level.init reads the initial enemy and player positions from the level file but ignores enemies above the limit}

Changing the upperlimit of the enemy array to two the program still runs, but it
GPF's directly after executing enemy[2].draw the first time.
Raising said upper limit any higher (there are supposed to be 5 enemies) causes
and instant and most ungracious GPF (Guess your Program's F*cked) before it even 
finishes loading the level. 

Right now I haven't finished the graphics for the enemies yet so they are loading
the same bitmaps as the player (setStatus determines the correct bitmap to show for the different animations) but I cannot Imagine this to be the problem as:
1: A single enemy works
2: The bitmaps are being stored in sepperate variables.

I have compiled the code with maximum optimization and with none at all  -this did not affect the result. Does anybody know what could be wrong ?


PS. The code is written for maximum portabillity and at this stage contains no threads whatsoever.

I appreciate any help very much, and If anybody wants to look at the code just say the word, I'll stick it on a public CVS server as soon as I have something that runs at least, and do the whole website etc. thing there-after.

Obviously I will credit any contributers in the AUTHORS file.

Ciao
A.J.



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